Josephine Hayes

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday One-to-Ones
Submission Requirements: please upload cover letter, one-page synopsis, first 20 pages. If picture book: cover letter and full text of one picture book
Looking for: Middle-grade to young adult fiction, picture books and children’s author/illustrators. In middle-grade, she is interested in a good quality mystery or adventure with a dash of light fantasy and wacky fiction with a great sense of humour. In teen and young adult fiction, she’d like to see strong young female characters taking centre stage, standout young adult romance or something with strong relationships and characters who you fall in love with and think about even when you’re not reading. Across all age groups, she is looking for humorous and joyful books with series potential, particularly for readers at the younger end. Jo is also searching for children’s author/illustrators for ages 2-7+ with a contemporary, quirky style and non-rhyming picture book texts.
Not interested in: High fantasy or science fiction

Josephine studied History at the University of Exeter. After graduating, she joined Bell Lomax Moreton and gradually began taking on her own clients. She joined The Blair Partnership in 2015 and continues to grow her list of children’s clients from picture book to young adult authors. Her clients have won or been shortlisted for accolades including The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards, WHSmith Non-fiction Book of the Year, The Carnegie Medal, The Blue Peter Book Award, and Crimefest’s Best Crime Novel for Children.

Jo enjoys working creatively and hands-on editorially with authors and advising on manuscripts with the intention of finding the right editor and publishing house for the authors’ work.  She is currently open to submissions of children’s books that you can nimbly describe in one or two sentences and is particularly looking for stories with unexpected twists, ‘real-world’ books with a sprinkling of magic, a unique voice or unreliable narrator, brilliant world-building, epic journeys and diverse and marginalised children’s authors writing across all genres and age ranges.